Journalist Who Exposed The Panama Papers Assassinated By Car Bomb

A woman named Daphne Caruana Galizia forever put a target on her back when she exposed how the rich and elite hid their money with the Panama Papers. Monday, Caruana Galizia blew up with her car after someone placed a car bomb on it.

The Panama Papers were said to be from a secretive law firm called Mossack Fonseca and Galizia leaked them in April 2016. They how the richest of the rich protect their vast wealth though a series of legal and tax structures that make Panama a tax haven.

There were 11.5 million documents in total which showed how Mossack Fonseca handled offshore shell companies to hide money, tax-free, for anyone who wanted their service. The country of Panama has been one of the oldest tax havens in the Americas since at least 1919.

Today, over 350,000 international 'business companies', many of which were shell companies as Caruana Galizia's document dump showed, are registered in Panama. Panama ranks #3 on the list of most international business companies exceeded only by Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands.

The brave reporter who exposed Panama for the tax haven it was being used for told police she had received personal threats to her safety according to local media. Caruana Galizia also made a living highlighting cases of corruption and blackmail often involving politicians from Panama and she no doubt made many enemies along the way.

In the last days before her untimely end Monday, Caruana Galizia wrote, "There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate." In another entry in her blog from last year she said, "In another entry last year, she wrote: "Malta's public life is afflicted with dangerously unstable men with no principles or scruples." Police are investigating her death but have not disclosed any progress or leads at this time.